Light Behind the Mask
by Lonely Hiruko
Summary: She was his daughter, and he was her papa. Through the good and the bad, they would always stand together, no matter what stood before them.
1. Chapter 1

The first thing I saw was those bright red eyes of hers. Laying in her mother's arms, she stared up at me in wonder. Reaching out, I held her for the first time. She was so small, and it felt like I could break her just by squeezing her tightly. Returning her to my wife's arms, I was overcome with joy. I was a father, and I had a beautiful daughter. However, I quickly became confused. The doctors had warned me there was a problem, yet both my wife and daughter seemed fine. Sensing my thoughts, my wife gave me a sad smile. In the span of a few seconds, I was overcome with anger. When my daughter was born, the doctors had discovered her red eyes. Upon that, they offered to euthanise her so that my wife did not have to do it herself. Luckily, my wife loved our daughter enough to refuse that. After another few minutes with my family, I was called outside to talk to a doctor. He wanted to know if I wanted them to euthanise my daughter. Looking at him coldly, I told him to never ask me such a thing again. Walking back into the room, I promptly told my wife that we would leave as soon as she was ready. After two hours of waiting, she was finally discharged from the hospital. Once we were back home, we went about deciding on a name. After hours of deliberation, we decided on the name Kohina, after my grandmother. Rocking her in my arms, I smiled at her sleeping form. Kissing her on the forehead, I left her to sleep.

Taking a few steps at a time, and almost falling over once, Kohina managed to cross the room to envelop herself into my waiting arms. While it was not a very large distance, I was still proud of her for doing it. She had attempted this twice before but her previous attempts had ended with her crawling part of the way, instead of walking. Picking her up, I brought her to the table to reward her for her accomplishment. Of course, walking across half the room wasn't good enough to deserve a reward. Watching her joyfully eat her ice cream, I wondered if she noticed that I had slowly walked backwards when she was trying to reach me. My wife had thought that covering half the room would be enough, but I believed Kohina could do the full distance. Knowing that Kohina may give up if she thought that she had to cover the whole room, I had started halfway, and slowly backed up. My wife did not seem to mind this, and she got a good laugh at Kohina's apparent cluelessness about what I did. Watching Kohina stuff her face while my wife kept congratulating her on the accomplishment, I could not help but smile. It warmed my heart to have the caring wife and lovely daughter that I had, and I never wanted it to end.

I was busy preparing dinner while my wife and Kohina were at the park. I wanted make something nice for my wife, to thank her for all the hard work she had done for the last three years raising Kohina. Glancing at the clock, saw that it was almost time for them to get back. Quickly setting the table, I made everything look as nice as I could. Taking the food out of the oven, I set it on the counter to cool while I got cleaned up. Once I was ready, I started putting food on everyone's plates. Taking another glance at the clock, a frown formed on my lips. They were running later than I expected, and I didn't want the food to get cold. Turning on the TV to pass the time, I grabbed my phone and attempted to find out when they would get back. After phoning my wife three times with no response, I started to feel nervous. Before I could phone her again, the TV caught my eye. A news reporter was at the park talking about a lynching that occurred there. My whole world seemed to fall apart when I recognised the park as the one my wife and Kohina were supposed to have visited. I rushed out the door, hastily forcing my feet into my shoes, and ran towards the park. Along the way, I kept repeating to myself that they would be fine and that it couldn't have been them. Arriving at the park, a police officer came towards me to stop me from getting any closer. Forcing my way past him, I felt my heart shatter. Collapsing to the ground, I let out a wail. Lying on the ground was my wife with a pool of blood beneath her.

A week later, I was able to bring Kohina home from the hospital. Finding out that she was alive had been the only thing that kept me from going insane. She had been sent to the hospital with such bad injuries that I had thought she wouldn't make it. However, her injuries had healed at an extraordinary rate, leaving her mostly fine. The hospital had kept her there for a week to make sure she was okay, as well as to run some tests on her. I learned from them that others like her, cursed children, healed themselves very quickly, like gastrea could. It angered me that people would attack a three year old girl just because of the colour of her eyes. Shaking my head in bitterness, I opened the door to be greeted with the mess I had let the house become. Placing Kohina on the couch, I began cleaning up. I subconsciously began adding up how much money I would need to replace all things I had destroyed in my rage. Grimacing, I started to throw away all the things I had broken. Wary of letting Kohina cut herself on some wood or glass, I had her wait in the only room that had survived my rampage. After spending hours cleaning up, I made some instant food for us to eat, not having the energy to make a proper meal. After we ate, I left the dishes in the sink and had us both get ready for bed. Sensing that Kohina was about to start crying over the loss of her mother again, I grabbed her and brought her to my bed. Hugging her close to me, I thought of what happened to my family. If people would do that to a family just for having a cursed child, I found it hard to believe that humanity deserved to live. After hours of tossing and turning, we both drifted off into a restless sleep.

After lots of training and hard work, Kohina and I walked out of the IISO building with smiles on our faces. We had both received our civil officer licences, and were now a pair. Although I was worried about letting Kohina fight, I also knew that I needed to get her the corrosion inhibition shot that initiators received. We both wandered around the city looking for a good place to get some weapons. Finding a place that sold weapons to civil officers, we both entered it. Browsing their gun selection, I could not help but frown at their small selection of pistols. During our training for the licences, I had discovered that I preferred pistols over larger weapons. I picked up a pair of Berettas to get a better look at them. While inspecting them, Kohina ran over to me to look with me. While gazing at them, she suggested that they would look better if I could attack some sort bayonet to them. Finding her idea amusing, I questioned the shop keeper if such an arrangement would be possible. To my surprise, he agreed with her and went about making a few sketches of what they could do for me. When he was done, he showed me his mock-up of a set of Berettas with folding bayonets. Shockingly, I quite liked them, and I ended up ordering them. Walking over to the sword section, I browsed their bladed weapons to find something suitable for Kohina. After twenty minutes of swinging different swords around, she decided on a pair of short swords. After buying them, we went home so that she could get a better feel for them. Together, we spent the rest of the day doing small mock battles against each other. After dinner, I took out the shot for her, and attempted to give it to her. After struggling with her, I finally resorted to bribing her with ice cream for her cooperation. After administering it to her, I gave her the payment for her cooperation. I could only hope that the shots would help with her corrosion rate, as I could not stand the thought of losing her. I watched her eat her ice cream with a sad smile, knowing that even if the shot worked, she would still have a much shorter lifespan than I did.

Having finished off a stage one gastrea, my heart seemed to stop beating as I heard a scream. Turning around, I saw my daughter take a heavy hit from a stage two gastrea. Before I could rescue her, she took another blow but to the head. Watching my daughter drop unconscious sent me into a rage. With both my guns, I opened fire on the gastrea, shooting it as quickly as possible. Once out of ammo, I charged at it while unleashing my Maximum Pain on it. Crushing it against the rock, I quickly reloaded my guns and emptied them into it to make sure it was dead. With it taken care of, I ran over to Kohina's unconscious form laying on the ground. I let out a big sigh of relief once I confirmed she was still breathing. The thought of losing the only remaining member of my family was too much for me to handle. Shakingly holding her in my arms, I promised myself that I would never allow this to happen to her again. Picking her up, I carried my seven year old daughter all the way home. It took two months after that before I allowed her to fight anything above a stage one gastrea.

Not even a year later we fought a stage three gastrea. It was the first time we engaged one by ourselves, so I made sure to keep an eye on her. Emptying my guns into it, I saw Kohina running towards me while screaming for me to move. I didn't understand what the problem was until I felt a sharp pain at the back of my head. Another gastrea had appeared and struck me from behind. Before it could get another attack off, Kohina forced it away from me. With the world spinning from my injury, I could only throw up my shield and hope that Kohina would be okay. Barely staying conscious, I watched as Kohina tore through the gastrea that ambushed me in a blind rage. Noticing the stage three charging at her, I tried to stop it, but I collapsed back onto the ground. She noticed it just in time to avoid the attack, and engaged it in single combat. Watching them fight, I could only pray that she would come out unharmed. After five minutes, Kohina was able to inflict a mortal wound to it. With it stumbling from the attack, I watched as she continued to inflict cut after cut to it. After another minute of a one sided battle, the gastrea was in several pieces, with cuts everywhere on its body. After stabbing it one last time, Kohina ran towards me with tears streaming down her face. Holding her, I slowly started to calm her down. After a few minutes of comforting her, we slowly made our way back home.

Going through the outer districts, we came across a young couple, probably in their early twenties. Eying us with suspicion, their faces showed disgust. Glancing down at Kohina, I guessed that it had to do with her red eyes. Although I wanted to ignore them, they started making their way over to us. Once close to us, the man spat on us. I looked at them in disbelief as they started ranting to me about Kohina, and how children like her should be killed. While they were busy going on about how Kohina was a monster, I turned to her and told her to kill them. Before they could comprehend what I said, Kohina had started cutting down the woman. Taking out one of my pistols, I took off the safety and cocked it. In one quick motion, I emptied the gun into the man, making sure to not kill him instantly. Walking over to him, I unleashed Maximum pain to crush him against the road. Kicking what remained of his body, I walked over to where Kohina was waiting. Hugging Kohina, I could only stare out into the distance as she broke down over the way people treated her. No matter how hard we tried, people seemed to always look down on us. I could not help but wonder just who we were protecting, and why we should help humanity.

Once we were home, I wrapped my head the best I could, knowing that I would have to make a trip to the hospital to get it checked out. Once we were both ready, we went to the hospital in the hope that I could get some strong pain killers. The whole time at the hospital, Kohina refused to leave my side, worrying that I would collapse at any moment. After being given some pain killers and being told to rest for two weeks, we went back home. After laying around for around an hour, I decided to take her to a sushi place as a treat for killing a stage three by herself, and partly because I didn't feel like cooking dinner. During dinner, I tried to ignore the gazes some people threw us, knowing that some of them probably suspected she was a cursed child. After dinner, we visited the park before going home. Kneeling at the place where my wife had died, I thought again about how cruel people could be. If people could be so cruel, then maybe it would be better create a mass extinction of the species. Chuckling at the thought, I took Kohina's hand and we started back on our way home. Once home, we both brushed our teeth and turned in for an early night. With her cuddling up beside me, I thought about how skilled she become as an initiator. Pulling her closer to me, I drifted off to sleep, dreaming about a world without all the cruel people.

For Kohina's tenth birthday, I baked her a small cake. While it wasn't as good as I would have liked, she could not keep the smile off her face at the thought of eating homemade cake. Fending her off from eating the icing, I sent her outside for a bit so that I could finish with it. Smiling while icing the cake, I decided to try out some fancy decorations. After a few minutes, I decided that it was best that I recognised my inability to properly make flowers out of the icing, and I removed my failure of an attempt at decoration. Once the cake was ready, I placed it out of her reach so that she could not take some before dinner. Deciding that Kohina would quickly grow bored of playing outside by herself, I decided to take her to the park with me.

Once at the park, she quickly dragged me into a game of tag. Knowing that I had no hope of catching her, I decided to cheat a little. Tripping over a tree root, I fell to the ground and remained unmoving. After a minute, Kohina came over with a worried look on her face. Once she was close enough, I sprang up and grabbed her. Her laughing brought a smile to her face, and I ended up laughing with her. After several more rounds of tag, and a number of other games, I decided it was time for us to go back. Grabbing on to her hand, I started leading her out of the park. Glancing at the spot I had found my wife lying in a pool of her own blood, I shook my head in disgust. Over the course of the last seven years, I slowly lost my faith in humanity. However, no matter how much I detested humanity, today was not the day for such thoughts. Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I put on a smile and led Kohina out of the park.

Once we got back home, I prepared her favourite dinner for us to eat. While doing this, she went and watched the newest episode of Tenchu Girls. Once the table was set, I called her over and we started eating. She really enjoyed the meal, and because it was her birthday, I decided not to call her out for some of her table manners. Once we finished and cleared the table, I brought some new plates and forks out to the table. Setting the cake in front of her, I sang her a quick birthday song, and waited for her to decide on a wish. After a minute of contemplation, she seemed to decide on a wish, and with a large smile, blew out the candles. After cutting us some cake, she quickly devoured her slice. After I finished my slice, I went and brought her the present I bought. Watching her explode with happiness at the Tenchu Girls DVD's I bought her brought a smile to my face. After being dragged over to our television, I watched some Tenchu Girls with her until it was time to go to bed. After she was ready for bed, I watched one last episode with her before bringing her to bed. With her tucked in and fast asleep, I took the time to reflect upon my life. Without a war, mechanised soldiers like me weren't needed. Combining that with the cruelty humanity could show cursed children, I wanted to restart the gastrea war. With that restarted, I would be needed again, and humanity would be forced to recognise to usefulness of the cursed children. Putting those thoughts aside, I gave Kohina a small kiss on her forehead and left her to have a peaceful sleep.

It was not long before I accepted the job from Kikunojo Tendo. All I had to do was cause trouble for the Tokyo Area so the New Gastrea Law would fail to pass. Knowing this would be my best chance at creating a world for us, I delightfully accepted the job from him. Of course, I planned on unleashing the stage five gastrea no matter what he said. Grabbing Kohina, we went to stock up on ammunition, food, medical supplies, and whatever else we needed for the next few months. As the job would be dangerous, I wanted to have enough supplies to last for the duration of the job, as well as for a few weeks for the aftermath of a stage five. Once we got an amount I thought would last, I took Kohina to go look for a place we could hide after being given the case. For the next week, we scouted outside the monoliths for any abandoned town we could find. After numerous treks, we found one I decided was suitable. After storing some supplies in the church, I took Kohina with me to look for landmarks that would help us recognise the town. After a few hours of wandering around, we went back to the Tokyo Area to wait for the case.

After a few days of waiting, I was informed that the person who was supposed to deliver the Inheritance of the Seven Stars was transformed into a gastrea, and absorbed the case. After receiving information about his last known location, I went to look for him, while sending Kohina to look for anywhere he may have ran off to. After a few hours, I ended up at an apartment that was reported to have had a gastrea attack. Entering the room, I found signs of a gastrea being there, but it had disappeared. Before I had the chance to resign myself to more searching, some police crashed through the window. When they raised their guns, I reflexively unleashed Maximum Pain on them, and crushed them against the wall. A few minutes later, the front door was blasted open, and a young man came running in. He had black hair, and was dressed in a black school uniform. After declaring myself to be the killer of the policemen, he attacked me. Although he was rather skilled, I quickly sent him into the wall. Before I had the chance to continue, my phone started ringing. Picking it up, I quickly talked with Kohina, who had gotten some more information on the gastrea. While talking with her, some more police charged in. With a few shots, I quickly dispatched them, enraging the civil officer. I blocked his attacks, not paying much attention to him, but focusing on what Kohina was telling me. However, he managed to get a good hit in, forcing my neck to twist. After ending the call with Kohina, I could not help but be shocked that someone like him had managed to land a blow on me. Taking an interest in him, I asked for his name, to which he introduced himself as Rentaro Satomi. After letting him know that no one could stop me, I leapt off the balcony to go meet up with Kohina.

A few days later, I got a call from someone working with Kikunojo Tendo. Rentaro's boss had done some snooping around into my backers. Due to this, they ordered me to kill Rentaro before his boss could find out their identities. Taking Kohina with me, we attempted to find him. After an hour of searching, we found a civil officer pair running through the forest we were in. Taking them by surprise, Kohina killed the initiator while I disabled the promoter. After a minute of interrogating him about why he was in such a rush, I found out that the gastrea with the case had been found. Shooting him in the head, I took Kohina and we rushed over to try and cut it off. Along the way, we encountered more civil officers, all of whom quickly died. After another hour of running and fighting our way through the forest, I grabbed Kohina and stopped. Ahead of us, there were sounds of some fight going on. Sneaking over, I peeked out from behind a tree to see what was going on. I saw Rentaro's initiator finish off the gastrea, which saved me the trouble of finding them. After Rentaro finished comforting her, he went and grabbed the case. Deciding that it was a good opportunity, I snuck up on him and grabbed him, throwing him away. At the same time, Kohina had snuck up on Enju and attacked her. To my surprise, he did not die when I crushed him with Maximum Pain. He called out to his initiator to run, which she hesitantly complied with. This caused Kohina to cry to me about wanting to chase her, to which I had to tell her no. Any more civil officers showing up would be a problem, so I wanted to grab the case and get out as soon as possible. Looking like she was ready to throw a temper tantrum, she reluctantly listened to me and attacked Rentaro from behind, severely injuring him. With one final farewell, I shot him and watched as he fell into the river. Grabbing the case, I took Kohina and we started our trek to the village we had found earlier.

It was not long before other civil officers arrived at the town. It was a large group of around twenty, but they did not seem to know my exact location. As I went to get into a good position to shoot them, Kohina circled around the town to get behind them. After counting to a minute to give Kohina time, I opened fire on the group. They quickly scattered into two groups, but I killed eight of them in the ambush. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kohina go after the ones to my right. Leaving them to her, I rushed after the other group of them. I saw one promoter running towards a building, and I filled him with bullets before he could get into cover. Right after killing him, an initiator tried to attack me, but my shield repelled her. Turning around, I shot her twice in the head, killing her instantly. Realising that I was almost out of ammo, I ran back to my original position and called for Kohina. Stopping to reload, a strong looking promoter with a large sword charged at me. Before I had the chance to use my repulsion shield, Kohina ran in and blocked the attack. Glancing at him, I recognised him as the same person who had attacked me at the civil officer meeting with the Seitenshi. Turning my back to him, I left Kohina to deal with him while I took out the rest of the civil officers. After a few minutes, the remaining people were dead. Walking back the pier, I noticed Kohina waiting for me. Checking her for any injuries, she complained that he had gotten way before she could kill him. From what she told me, I figured that he was going to die from his injuries anyways, so it was not worth going after him. Once I was sure she wasn't hurt anywhere, I went over to the pier for some fresh air. Letting the scent of the sea wash over me, I let out a small laugh. We were so close to our goal, and with all the civil officers we killed, we didn't have to worry about any more coming to us any time soon. Ruffling Kohina's hair, I gazed out at the ocean.

While standing on the pier, Rentaro showed up to the town. While it was unexpected, I was not very surprised to learn that he was still alive. I could tell from his voice that he was nervous about fighting me. I watched with interest as Rentaro rolled up his right sleeve and pant leg, wondering what he was hoping to accomplish. Watching his skin peel off, leaving behind black limbs, left me in a state of shock. He introduced himself again, but as a survivor of the New Humanity Creation Project. Spreading my arms wide, I could not help but laugh. To think that we were the same brought a feeling I could not describe. Taking out my Berettas, I unfolded their bayonets and took a stance. Unleashing an attack, Rentaro met my Maximum Pain with a punch of his own, sending us both flying away. Coughing up blood, I stared in wonder at the blood on my sleeve. I felt a surge of adrenaline go through me at the sense of pain. Laughing, I spun around once in pure ecstasy. I was in pain, something I had not felt in a long time. Calming down, I prepared myself for a magnificent fight, which I could not let him win. After all, this was my war for me, by me. This was my chance to give me and Kohina a reason to exist, and I was not going to let anyone get in our way.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

I'd like to thank everyone for reading this story. I put a lot of effort into this, and I hope you got as much enjoyment out of it as I have. It's my first every fanfiction, so I hope it's not too bad. I've done my best to remove any mistakes, including rereading this multiple times, but I apologise if I've let any get through.

Instead of writing chapter 2, I have chosen to rewrite this entire chapter. To put in into perspective, the original chapter had 917 words, while the rewritten one has 4649 words. I would like to give a big thanks to TheGreatWhiteNortherner for this, as I would never have been able to make it as good as I have without his feedback. It is thanks to him that this chapter turned out much better than I had anticipated.

If you want more up to date information on my stories, including plans for future ones, feel free to check my profile. I'll try and keep it updated with information. (For Angelika, feel free to share this on that Russian site)


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing I wanted to do when papa said he was going to become a civil officer was to join him. He seemed worried about me fighting, but I kept bugging him every chance I got. I couldn't remember what my mama looked like anymore, and I didn't want him to die and forget what he looks like. After days of this, he finally agreed to let me be his initiator when he got his licence. We spent weeks training together, and whenever he was at the promoter classes, I was practicing on my own. I kept counting down the days until we would become civil officers, and I could fight with him. After months of doing this, we were finally able to get our licences. Papa took me to look for a store to sell us weapons, and after two hours we found one. As soon as we entered I ran off to find their swords. I liked the wooden practice swords I used for training, so I wanted to get real ones. After a few minutes, I ran over to where papa was to find out what he was doing. Looking at the pistols he was holding, I suggested he attach bayonets to them. I wasn't sure whether he liked the idea, but he asked the shop keeper about it, who liked the idea. Quickly growing bored of waiting for the person to finish their sketches, I ran back to the swords. A few minutes later, papa came over and let me swing around some swords. After twenty minutes of trying different swords, I chose a pair of short swords. Papa took them to the counter and bought them for me. After he purchased them, we went home together.

Once we were home, we did some mock battles against each other. I chose the wooden swords as I didn't want to hurt papa, and because I was accustomed to their weight. After a few hours of this I started getting hungry, so papa started making dinner. While waiting for it to be ready, I tried to decide on my favourite battle of the day. They were all fun, but I still thought that his repulsion shield was cheating to use, as I couldn't get through it. After a lot of thought, I finally decided that I liked the capture the flag one the best, although that was more of a game than real battle practice. Hearing papa call me over for dinner, I ran to the table to eat. After I finished dinner, he told me to wait at the table while he got something. A minute later, he came over with something I didn't recognise. Hearing that it was some kind of shot, I bolted for the door. Papa got me before I could open it, but I resisted going back. After struggling for a few minutes, he told me that I could have ice cream if I took it. Knowing that I would have to take it eventually, as he told me it was to slow down the virus's corrosion, I reluctantly agreed to take it. While eating the ice cream, I noticed that papa seemed sad. I tried asking him what the problem was, but he wouldn't tell me. Giving up, I went and did my own things, hoping that he would tell me what he was thinking soon.

We had just ate breakfast when papa decided to take me outside the monoliths to kill some gastrea. Although he claimed it was for practice, I was sure that he was only taking me outside because he was getting paid well. He was usually against going outside the monoliths, so I wondered if we were short on money. Deciding that I didn't really care, I grabbed my swords and followed him out the door. The train was filled with a lot of people when we got there, but quickly grew empty as we neared the outer districts. After getting off at the outermost station, we walked towards the barriers. I grew uneasy the closer we got to them, but I tried my best to act brave. Although papa claimed his shield was invincible, I still worried that it might fail to protect him. Once we reached the barriers, I was given instructions on what to do in different scenarios, but I tuned him out. The only thing I needed to know was that I would protect papa. Shaking his head, he reprimanded me and repeated himself, forcing me to listen. Once he was done lecturing me, he took out his pistols. Following his actions, I unsheathed my swords we went into the Unexplored Territory.

It wasn't even an hour since entering the Unexplored Territory when we engaged a gastrea. Although it was only a stage one, a second one jumped in to help it. I ran towards the closest one while papa took the further one. Dodging a blow aimed for my head, I thrust my swords into its stomach before jumping aside. Glancing at the mark it left at my previous position, I figured it to be a strong but slow type. Readying myself for another attack, I charged straight at it. Right before its attack hit me, I changed my direction and ran behind it. Jumping onto its back, I slashed twice into its nape before jumping off of it. After landing, I threw my whole body at it, burying my swords as deep into it as possible. Feeling it shift, I jumped away, pulling both my swords out. When it turned to face me, I stared into its eyes, shocked that it didn't die. I didn't know how it survived my attacks, but I was forced to put those thoughts aside as I rolled underneath a swipe from it. Glancing at the other battle going on, I saw that papa was going to kill his opponent soon. Although it wasn't a competition, I wanted to kill mine first. Crouching low, I sprinted straight towards it again. Although it was strong, I was right about it being slow. Before it could adjust to what was happening, I had jumped towards it. Burying my swords into its neck, I quickly twisted and ripped them out. Jumping off, I started to celebrate my kill, when a feeling of dread overtook me. Turning my head, I didn't have time to realise what happened before I felt a sudden pain in my head. Letting out a scream, I was sent skidding across the ground. Forcing myself to my feet, I watched in shock as another gastrea charged me. Before I could react, I saw it swipe at me, and everything went dark.

Several months later, we were fighting a stage three gastrea. It was our first time fighting one by ourselves, but I wasn't worried. Between now and the time I was almost killed by a stage two, we had gotten a lot better. Dodging a swipe at me, I thrust my sword into the offending arm before running off. Turning to face it, I felt a sense of dread go through me again. Looking around, I couldn't figure out why I felt like something bad was going to happen. Dodging another attack, I readied myself to charge it when I noticed movement at the corner of my eye. Turning my head towards the direction, I let out a scream and sprinted towards papa. Even though I ran as fast as possible, I could only watch on horror as another gastrea attacked papa from behind. Before it could attack him again, I attacked it, forcing it to focus on me. In a blind rage, I tore through the gastrea who had hurt papa, making sure to cut off any limbs that came near me. Before it could attack me again, I thrust both swords into its eyes, making sure to reach the brain. Hearing heavy footsteps coming from behind, I rolled to my side, narrowly avoiding the attack from the stage three gastrea. Looking to where papa had been, I saw him lying on the ground unmoving. My vision seemed to grow red as I stopped caring about what happened to me. Charging the stage three, I cut it everywhere I could. Stepping to the side, I felt my cheek get sliced, but I continued my assault. Although I was getting hurt, all I wanted to do was kill and inflict pain to the gastrea. The battle seemed to last seconds as I mercilessly inflicted as many cuts as I could. Stabbing the corpse one last time, I dropped my weapons and ran towards papa in tears. Throwing myself into his arms, I let out all my feelings of fear, happiness, and sadness over what happened.

We were walking through the outer districts when I saw two people. I wasn't sure what they were doing out here as nobody goes out here if they can avoid it. Watching them from the corner of my eye, I saw them walk towards us. Although I wasn't expecting anything good from them, I was still shocked when the man spat on us. Both of them started ranting about people like us, and how children like me were monsters and deserved to be killed. Clenching my fists together, I slowly reached for my swords. I knew that killing civilians would get us into trouble, but I couldn't stand these people any longer. Before I could make up my mind on what to do, papa turned to me and told me to kill them. Smiling wide, I pulled out my swords and attacked the woman. She didn't even realise what had happened before I had cut her right arm off. Sadly, I misjudged how much the woman could take and accidently killed her earlier than I wanted to. Crying out in frustration, I hacked away at the body, sending her blood everywhere. Taking some deep breaths, I waited for papa to finish, leaving what remained of her corpse. He walked over to me and enveloped me in his arms, making me break down again. I didn't understand why people had to treat me this way. Both of us worked so hard to kill the gastrea, but it seemed people hated me for being born.

Six months before my tenth birthday, we got into an argument with another civil officer pair. We had just killed a civilian who we thought may have been infected by the gastrea that we had just killed. Although it made sense to me, the other pair was yelling at us that the person wasn't infected, and we had made a mistake. Even if they were right, I didn't really care as I enjoyed the screaming of the person as I cut them down. Turning towards papa, I asked if I could kill the other pair, to which he agreed. Launching myself at the initiator, I drew my sword and sliced at her neck. Jumping out of the way, she unsheathed her sword and charged me. I blocked her attack with my left sword while stepping to the side. Before she could get back, I buried my right sword into her shoulder, leaving her with only one useable arm. Quickly stepping back, she seemed to realise the difference in our skill, but it was too late for her to do anything. Running towards her, I brought both swords down on her. With her injured arm she was unable to lift her sword in time, leaving her head to take the blow. Before her body could fall, I chopped off her left leg while burying my other sword into her stomach. Looking around, I noticed a random person watching us from an alleyway cowering in fear. With a large smile on my face, I ran behind them. Turning around, they had a look of horror on their face as I decapitated them. I knew that would get us in trouble, but I decided that there wouldn't be a problem if there were no witnesses.

I was taking a bath at home when papa called me to come to the table when I was finished. Quickly scrubbing myself, I hurriedly dried off and changed into a clean dress. Running over, I noticed that he didn't look happy. Before I could ask what was wrong, he informed me that our licences were revoked. Apparently, the IISO finally had enough of us and decided to revoke our licences. Staring at him in shock, I had trouble comprehending what he was telling me. I understood a few things, such as the different things we did that they claimed were problems, but I didn't understand why. Even if we killed a few civil officers every now and then, it wasn't as though we were the only ones who did it. Papa guessed that it had to do with our latest battle earlier today, and that someone witnessed the two civilians we killed. Although we were no longer civil officers, papa assured me that we could still kill things and get money. Listening to his reasoning, I slowly nodded in agreement. Although we were no longer civil officers, we were still highly skilled, having held an IP rank of 134. Even without licences, it wasn't as though the police could take away our weapons, as they would have to be suicidal to attempt that. Moreover, papa was sure there would be someone who could use trained killers who needed work, and that we would just have to be patient. Also, papa still had his day job, so we would be okay even if we didn't get another job soon. Smiling, I agreed with him, already looking forward to whatever job we would get next.

Even though I excelled in fighting, papa still thought it was important for me to learn other things. Glaring at the paper in front of me, I vehemently disagreed. I would never need to know things like multiplication and division, but papa seemed to think it was good. Staring at him, I silently begged to be allowed to leave. Sadly, he just shook his head at me and told me I had to finish this before leaving the table. Although I hated doing this, as I didn't consider an education to be very important for me, I was lucky that he made me do less than other kids did. Groaning in frustration, I took another look at the clock. Sensing my annoyance, papa came over to help me with the questions he assigned me. After several more minutes of torture, I finally finished. Giving him my paper, I ran off to go hide from him, knowing that he'd make me correct any mistakes. Hearing him call me name, I cowered in my hiding spot, knowing that I did something wrong. Hearing his footsteps nearby, I covered my mouth to try and hide the sound of my breathing. Suddenly, he was looking directly in my eyes with an evil smile on his face. Resigning myself to another torture session, I followed him to the table to correct whatever I did wrong. Expecting to be stuck for another few minutes figuring out the problems, I was pleasantly surprised when he went over everything I did wrong, helping me correct the mistakes. Although I hated this, I knew he was only making me do it because he thought it was good for me. Because of that, I would always do whatever schoolwork he assigned me, no matter how much I hated it.

For my tenth birthday, papa decided to bake me a cake. I couldn't wait to eat it as I always liked whatever sweets papa made. Dancing around the kitchen, I tried to snatch some of the icing away, albeit unsuccessfully. After multiple attempts of this, he sent me outside so that I wouldn't bother him anymore. Smiling happily at the thought of cake, I giggled as I went outside, dancing around again. Even though I was outside, I could still smell the cake through the window, which only excited me even more. After a few minutes of waiting, papa came outside and took me to the park. During the walk to the park I hummed the opening of Tenchu Girls, which I had learned about a few weeks ago. It was my favourite show, and I really liked the opening song. Continuing to hum the opening theme, I started thinking of all the things we could do at the park.

Once we reached the park, I dragged papa into a game of tag. I ran across the park, heading for the group of trees. As soon as I reached them I began weaving between the trees, trying to lose him. Papa may have been one the best promoters, but even he was no match for me in tag. After a few minutes of this I noticed that I hadn't seen papa for a while. Sneaking through the bushes, I tried to find him. Finally, I spotted him with his red coat on. He was lying on the ground with his face in the dirt. I felt a surge of anxiety come over me. Running over, I tried thinking of what could have happened to him. I tried calling his him to no avail, furthering my worry. Stopping next to him, I reached out to shake him. However, before I could touch him he leapt up and grabbed me, lifting me into the air. I erupted into laughter, realising that I had been tricked. Papa ended up laughing with me for a minute before putting me down. After a few more rounds of tag, papa decided it was time to go home. Grabbing onto his hand, we started leaving. I noticed him glance at a patch of grass and shake his head. I had notice him do this a few times whenever we came to the park, but I never had the courage to ask him about it. Squeezing his hand, I smiled at him. He shook his head, seemingly getting rid of whatever he was thinking about before smiling back.

When we got back home I immediately rushed towards the TV. Turning it on, I sighed in relief as I had made it back in time to see the latest episode of Tenchu Girls. After the episode, papa called me over for dinner. Papa had made my favourite foods for dinner, which I was grateful for. After dinner, papa cleared the table and brought the cake over. After he sang to me, I tried thinking of a wish. After a minute of thinking, I decided upon wishing for me and papa to be together forever. Blowing out the candles, I helped take them out. After receiving my slice of cake, I started devouring it. I waited for papa to finish his slice of cake, growing impatient to see what he got me. Once he finished, he went and brought me a box wrapped up with a pretty ribbon. Tearing the wrapping paper open, I let out a squeal. Thanking papa for the present, I dragged him to the TV to watch my new DVD's with me. We watched Tenchu Girls until it was time to go to bed, but after getting ready, he watched one more episode with me.

Our job for Lord Tendo was supposed to be simple, get the Inheritance of the Seven Stars and cause problems. However, the person who was supposed to give it to us transformed into a gastrea, leaving us to hunt down the case. While papa went to the site of a gastrea attack, I tried to cut off any escape route. Walking through the park, I noticed a man on his phone with a young girl beside him. Mildly interested, I walked by them to see if I could hear his conversation. I stopped in my tracks at the mention of a stage one gastrea. It seemed that they had some information regarding the gastrea we were hunting down. Glancing at the trees blowing in the wind, I looked back to see the girl missing. Before I could question it, I felt a knife at my throat. I paid no attention to the girl, instead choosing to watch as the man finished his conversation and walked towards me. When he was around 3 metres away, I jerked my head back, temporarily stunning the girl. Rolling to my side, I unsheathed my swords and thrust one through her ribcage. Pulling my sword out, I stepped the side while closely watching the gun pointed at me. Firing off a shot, the man stared in shock as I cut the bullet out of the air. Grabbing my chance, I charged him and cut his right arm off while tripping him. Kneeling beside him, I held my sword to his eye and gave him a smile. After a minute of interrogating him, I left both bodies to bleed out, choosing to go into the bushes. Once I was sure I wasn't being followed, I pulled out my phone and dialed papa's number.

Pulling my sword out of the initiator's chest, I turned around and skipped over to where papa was interrogating the promoter. It had been two days since I revealed that Enju was a cursed child to her school, and in that time her boss had tried to find out who was helping us. I didn't really care what her boss did, but we were ordered to kill Rentaro. Engrossing myself in the thought of seeing Enju again, I was startled by a gunshot. Papa grabbed my arm and started running, telling me that the case had been found. I started mentally preparing myself for the fight, knowing that we'd run into others who were after it. We encountered more civil officers on our way through the forest, around ten pairs in total, before papa grabbed me again. I was confused for a second before I heard what sounded like fighting. Creeping through the forest, I peered through a bush to find Enju finish off the gastrea. Snickering as I watched Rentaro go over to comfort her, I circled around to get closer to Enju. As papa threw Rentaro away, I attacked Enju. After what felt like seconds of trying to kill her, a voice called out for her to run. Taking advantage of her distracted state, I leapt and swung my swords down, barely missing as she jumped out of the way of a bullet. Seeing her run off, I turned and cried for permission to go after her, to which I was cruelly denied. Crying out in frustration, I ran behind Rentaro and rammed my swords through him, pulling and pushing them through him. Jumping away from his attack, I let papa finish him off. With Enju's head denied to me, I sulked through the first part of our trek to the town outside the monoliths.

The town we were in was eerily quiet. Looking around, I couldn't help but frown at the lack of trouble we had run into. Other than a stage three gastrea along the way, the journey had been uneventful. While sitting around waiting for the stage five, I heard a large amount of people heading towards us. Perking up, I listened to try and establish where they were coming from. Upon getting a good idea, I ran off and started circling the group of people. Papa would give me about a minute before beginning his attack, which I hoped would give me enough time to get behind them. Counting down the seconds, I reached a good spot where I could see them with twelve seconds to spare. Quickly adding them up, I counted ten pairs heading towards the centre of the town. Before I could ready myself, I noticed another smaller group of ten circling around. Growling in annoyance, I thought of going after them, but the sound of gunfire interrupted my thoughts. Seeing them split up, I went after one of the groups, leaving the other one to die to papa's guns. Running through the streets, I sliced anyone who got in my way. Within a minute, what little people that had fled the initial ambush had turned into a bunch of dismembered corpses, leaving me to track down the third group.

Before I could decide on how to find the third group, I heard my name be called. Rushing back to our original position, I saw a large man with a giant sword heading straight for papa. Screaming at him to leave papa alone, I charged between him and papa, blocking his swing. Throwing my body into him, I forced him away from papa and towards an alleyway. He kept swing his sword at me, but I was too fast for him to hit me. He was quicker than I expected, jumping out of the way before I could cut his throat. Before I could pull my sword back, he knocked it out of my hand. Realising what he was about to do, I jumped back towards one of the buildings. I ran up it and jumped off, flipping over him. Putting all my strength into my swing, I broke his sword before he could react. Grabbing the piece that came off, I launched off the ground and forced it into his back. Readying myself to finish him off, I spun and blocked a blow from an initiator that showed up. Reaching out with my empty hand, I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards me, tripping her in the process. After impaling her with my remaining sword, I looked around for the promoter, but he had disappeared. Frowning, I retrieved my other sword and made my way back the pier, not wanting to waste time on someone who would bleed out and die.

A breeze blew through my hair while standing on the pier. Across from me stood Enju and Rentaro. I was astonished that he was alive, as I was sure that I had killed him earlier. I wasn't bothered when he revealed his varanium limbs. No matter what tricks he had come with, he didn't stand a chance against us. Looking over at Enju, my lips curved upwards. I couldn't wait to cut her head off, as our last fight had been cut short. Unsheathing my swords, I crossed them in front of me in preparation for out battle. Papa went and engaged Rentaro first, but to my shock, his shield seemed to break in front of my eyes. Watching the blood come out of his mask made something snap inside of me as I felt rage bubbling up inside. Letting out a scream, I charged at the offending person. Nobody was allowed to hurt papa, and I would kill anyone who tried such a thing. Swing my swords, Rentaro and Enju blocked my attacks. Drawing his pistol, Rentaro aimed it at me before being rammed by Enju. Watching as they hopped around, I ran after them. Seeing Rentaro get dropped behind a shipping container, I was about to go after him before he jumped out and fired at papa. In an instant, I was beside papa cutting apart the bullet. Growling quietly, I continued to cut apart the bullets he shot, intending to make sure papa wouldn't be hurt.

I could feel the tears reaching my eyes but I refused to let the fall, at least in front of the enemy. We had been defeated, with Rentaro sending papa into the ocean with one final kick. We should have won, so I couldn't wrap my head around how papa was in the ocean with Enju and Rentaro up here with me. Some part of me wanted to give in and cry, while another part wanted to kill them. Peering into the ocean, I stifled a wail as papa didn't come out. All of a sudden I felt a sense of calm envelop me. Standing up and wiping my eyes, I started making my way down to the shore. Although the chances of papa surviving were slim, I still wanted to find him and make sure he actually died. No matter what happened, I would always be loyal to him. If there was even the slightest chance of him surviving, I would go to the ends of the earth to find him. With grim determination, I took one final breath before plunging into the ocean.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Chapter 2 is finally done after way too long, thank-you everyone for your patience.

I'm not too sure about my formatting, as I've seen other people have much larger spaces between their lines, along with not having their stories split up into such large chunks. However, since I didn't include any dialogue in this I decided to try this format. I hope it's not too bad, but I would like to try the more standard writing format for future stories.

I hope you guys like this, as there aren't very many stories featuring Kagetane and Kohina, so hopefully this will provide some content for us Hiruko supporters to enjoy. Until next time.


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